Epress.am News from Armenia
If the Heritage Party sues, they would do right, said ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) MP Hovhannes Sahakyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today about the clash between police and Heritage Party MPs during a protest outside the government building yesterday against the ban on street trade.
“If they find that there are grounds for legal action, they can take sue. But I think that the outcome of all this is that Heritage [Party] reached its aim,” he said, referring to Heritage Party MP Stepan Safaryan’s meeting with RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan a few hours after the altercation with police.
According to Sahakyan, through such actions the MPs want to prove that they’re by the people’s side and they’re fighting with the people for their rights.
Another participant at today’s press conference, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Lilit Galstyan called yesterday’s incident “another way of expressing cynicism and impunity.”
“To tell the truth, I wasn’t even surprised because there’s a script at work here and it continues to work. And yesterday, Yerevan’s deputy police chief on TV confirmed my opinion, this state of impunity,” she said.
“Those scenes should simply be offensive for every citizen and authority. And our deputy police chief on TV considers himself at times the mayor, at times the district governor and at times the president of Armenia,” she said.
Galstyan considers the state to be vulnerable when since 1990, police have been serving the ruling authorities at any given time and not ensuring citizens’ safety.